impromptu
by Alexnandru Van Gordon
Summary: Robin has always been one member on the team who keeps his past an absolute secret. What if something happened to those memories and he needed to get them back? Add a new villain to the mix and all you’ll get is trouble...
1. Default Chapter

Impromptu

Alexnandru Van Gordon

For those of you who don't know what the title means, here's a little definition:

_Impromptu: _(from prompted by the occasion rather than being planned in advance; spoken, preformed, done, or composed with little or _no_ preparation.

PS: I take no claim over that definition.

Anyhow—I decided to write this after a long argument with my younger sister. She says that people with amnesia get back memories when they are told of their memories and constantly reminded. I said that too—but I also said that you needed the help of pills sometimes and you were usually encouraged to remember things on your own. She says that's impossible, so I've decided to have fun and asked her this: what if you had to save yourself or someone else, you had amnesia, and no one you knew (or knew you, for that matter) was anywhere around. This question confused her, but I'm sure you'll understand after you get into reading this…

**SUMMARY:** Robin has always been one member on the team who keeps his past an absolute secret. (Raven too, but thanks to Slade that didn't last long.) What if something happened to those memories and he needed to get them back? Add a new villain to the mix and all you'll get is trouble…

Hehehe…I'm going to have fun with this…

DISCALIMER: I know it, you know it, we all know it—I don't own them.

CHAPTER ONE: Glanknark

He was always a secretive person. It was because of what Batman told him—your identity is your most valuable possession. If anyone who hated you found out even just _one_ thing about you…say goodbye to your loved ones, because they going to be dead in the morning. He agreed, even though his parents were already dead due to and accident in their acrobat-ing carrier. He still had his surrogate father to worry about, Alfred, and a couple of good friends in Jump City…

The Teen Titans, naturally.

"Morning!"

He jumped and fell out of bed. That was a first…

Rubbing the back of his head, Robin sat up on the floor and stared at the opened door to his room. Starfire stood at the foot of his bed and bent sideways to look at him with wide curious eyes and a small smile on her face. He had never been woken before…maybe when he lived with Bruce Alfred would wake him before his alarm clock did, but still…didn't he lock the door?

"Good morning…" He replied softly, getting up off the floor. Starfire closed her eyes as her smile grew and Robin continued to rub the back of his head. "Ummm…how did you get in here with the lock on the door?"

She paused... "There is a lock on the door?"

"Yeah, on the—" Robin did a double-take on his door, the control looked to have been punched in, but he was having trouble believing Starfire did that intentionally.

"I pressed the button and it opened." She said and he stared back at her with a grin. "But I can hardly contain my excitement!"

Oh great. Another Tamaranian celebration…

"What is it, Star?" Robin yawned, sitting back on his bed as the grogginess washed away from his mind. It was three am—not the usual time Starfire woke up. He just got back from scouting the city and he wasn't too awake just yet, so this had to be something awefully important.

"Tomorrow is _GLANKNARK!_" She hollered and started to levitate upside-down. "Glanknark, Robin!"

"Ummm…what's Glanknark, Star?"

She turned herself upright and sat down on the bed beside him, so bubbly and happy she looked like she was going to explode. He hadn't seen her this happy since he let her keep Silkie. "It is my day of birth." She explained joyfully. "I will be exactly Sixty-two glanknarks old!"

"You mean your birthday?" Robin paused for a long time before bringing up the question of. "How many earth years is that?"

"Ummm…I believe somewhere around sixteen."

She was sixteen? And he was only fifteen…Boy did he suddenly feel little…

But that was tomorrow…That meant he still had one day to get her a gift.

Or make her one…

-BB-

Besides having Starfire doing cartwheels around him as he tried to near the table for breakfast, everything else was pretty much the same…Wait…Where was Robin?

"Isn't Robin usually the first one up?" He asked aloud, hoping anyone would answer. If he wasn't in the kitchen he was usually in the gym, but it didn't sound like he was when Beast Boy got up in the morning. And wasn't exactly in Robin's dark persona to sleep in.

Starfire paused in her cartwheels and looked to the entranceway of the main room. "He said he was getting something ready, but that was four hours ago."

"And what has you haywire?" Cyborg asked as he put the frying pan on the stove top. Raven was off meditating in the corner of the room, having had her tea, and left them to talk on their own.

Starfire sat down calmly beside Beats Boy at the counter. "IT IS MY GLANKNARK TOMORROW!"

Beast Boy was almost blown away and had a ringing sound in his ear as he sat up off the floor and slithered back into his seat. He felt…liquefied.

"Or, as Robin would put it…" Starfire continued. "It is my sixteenth birthday."

Everyone in the room froze.

"Dude—that's awesome!" Beast Boy exclaimed as Starfire caught him in a grizzly bear hug. "I want to bake the cake!"

"No way." Cyborg cut in and started pulling out other pans. "I'm baking the cake—if you do it, you're gonna substitute some of the ingredients and it's gonna taste like mud pies."

"But I make wonderful cakes!"

"Since when?"

He frowned and Starfire released him as he strolled around the counter. "I challenge you to a cake baking contest!"

Cyborg grinned and eyed the hand Beast Boy held out o shake. "What does the loser have to do?"

Beast Boy grinned himself. "The loser has to have a big piece of the winner's cake—_and_ has to eat all of it."

Cyborg paused, but his grin grew mischievously and he shook Beast Boy's hand. There were all sorts of none vegetarian ingredients in cakes like eggs and…

"You've got yourself a deal." Cyborg said and started pushing Beast Boy away from the stove. "Now go see what the heck is taking Robin. He, Raven, and Star are going to be the judges."

Beast Boy braced his feet, but he found it to be no good as he neared the doorway. "No way! I need to bake my cake too, you know!"

"We'll do it one at a time." He replied, shoving him out into the hallway. "That way I'll have all the dishes washed and ready for you to use when I'm done—and yours will taste fresher."

"But why do I have to go to the underworld! Robin doesn't like to be interrupted unless it's an emergency!"

"Beast Boy, Raven's room is the underworld. At least with Robin, you're up against a mortal."

Yeah right. He didn't fight like a human.

Turning away from the main room, he stomped down the hall as he grumbled nonsense insults at Cyborg. He knew the big hunk of metal was going to sabotage his cake somehow—he just knew it. They were going to like his cake better because cake baking was one of the few things he actually knew how to do—without using anything that was made from animals.

Poor animals…

He came to Robin's door sooner than he expected and looked down at the broken control panel. Either Starfire went to say hello, or Robin wasn't in a good mood.

Beast Boy began to shiver.

Raising a shaky hand to the door. Beast Boy closed his eyes and—

"Beast Boy."

He jumped with a shriek and stared at Robin who had just opened his door. Before he could make up an apology, Robin grabbed him by the front of his suit and pulled him into his room, the door swishing shut behind them.

First off—it was dark. The only light that was on was the one by Robin's desk, and it revealed a spotless room that had walls covered with newspaper articles and other clues Robin poured over nights on end. Villains stared back at Beast Boy and he suddenly wondered how Robin could ever sleep in a room like this…Then again, Robin didn't sleep or eat much, so maybe this would explain why. You'd have to be either psychologically ill or really liked bats to like a room such as Robin's.

He was guessing both for Boy Wonder.

"I want to show you Starfire's gift." Robin explained, taking a sat at the desk. He grabbed something carefully and spun around in his chair to show Beast Boy.

His eyes grew wide as he stared at the necklace fitted with tine garnets to make a small star. There was a golden chain on the desk behind Beast Boy and he could tell Starfire was going to like this.

"Dude—that's incredible!" Beast Boy exclaimed, not even daring to touch the necklace. "Where'd you buy it?"

Robin shrugged and put it back down on the desk carefully. "I bought the chain and the emeralds a while ago. I was going to make it for someone else a long time back…but I decided to finish it today for Starfire."

"Someone you thought you loved, but didn't turn out to be the right person?"

"Something like that…" Robin yawned. "But now that I'm finished, I'm going to sleep. I've only had an hour of shut-eye so far."

"Good luck with that." Beast Boy muttered, eyeing the walls again. "Oh—Cy and I are having a cake contest tomorrow. You're one of the judges because if it was left to just Starfire and Raven we could end up with a tie."

Robin yawned again. "That sounds fine to me—"

The alarm went off and they both froze.

Beast Boy laughed. "Looks like that shut eye is going to have to wait."

"Dammit…." Robin muttered and they were out this door and into the hall in a flash.

-R-

The hospital wasn't the usual place they were called to. In fact, this was the first time they ever had to battle in the hospital—and it wasn't easy when you couldn't see your opponent. People were fleeing from the brain injury ward and yet none of the nurses or doctors could explain what had spooked them. There was something in there alright—you could hear things crashing around, but no one could see anything.

Cyborg raised his human eyebrow as the nurse gave him the unseen description. "What—are you saying this is a ghost or something?"

There was another loud crash down the hall and she shivered. "I don't know. All I do know is that all the patients are out and no one else is in there."

There was a second crash coming from another hallway and a piece of machinery went sliding past them as the split up. The nurse fled and the five Titans just stood and stared for a moment as a deathly silenced followed.

"Dudes, this is spookier than Raven's room."

She shot him an veil glare that shut him up and started forward with Robin. Robin whipped out his Bo-staff as his partner began her mantra, hands and eyes glowing black as they cautiously advanced.

"Whoa…" Robin stepped aside as a shadow went in between his legs and paused in the center of the floor between them and the three remaining Titans. It was followed by another which slid up the wall and paused near Cyborg's head as he backed away slowly.

"Don't look like ghosts to me." Cyborg muttered, not daring to stay too close. "How exactly do we blast something we can't touch? You can't exactly destroy a shadow."

"With light you can." Starfire suggested, but Robin shook his head.

"Look. The lights are on and this thing is right in the center of the wall and floor. There's nothing to cast he shadow."

Robin stared back the way they were headed and watched as more shaodwlings came around the corner, one sliding to the ceiling above Starfire. She took a step forward and it followed her. Stepping up beside Robin, she grabbed his arm and shivered at the sight of it, hoping for goodness sake that it didn't fall on her. All the other shadows seemed attracted to her and swarmed around the two.

All save for a couple.

The rest of the shadows gathered together near Raven into a large mound of goop that started to bubble and grow taller with each passing moment. Raven backed away cautiously, but she and the others stayed ready in case it attacked.

The shadow took form of something that resembled a grim reaper. Tall and cloaked, all that could be seen clearly was its two glowing red eyes as they narrowed and scanned the five teenagers.

"_A mind filled with darkness is a mind that can dominate all."_ It said.

"That settles it." Beast Boy gulped. "He's a bad guy."

The dark figure hissed in response and opened its cloak to reveal something that looked like the universe. It was a small vortex of stars and galaxies that appeared to be on a curved screen, spinning and warping as though they were flying through space. Tentacles shot out from the scenery at the five Titans who barely dodged aside in time.

"Azarath…metrion…_zinthos_!" Raven chanted, tentacles of her own shooting out from real shadows. They collided with the monsters and it was like an arm wrestle as the two tried to push each other back.

Cyborg charged up his cannon and took a shot at the shadows that followed along the wall. They all hissed and shrieked, growing dimmer and smaller from the burst of light. The others caught onto this and Starfire shot her starbolts as Robin chucked his light bombs. The best Beast Boy could do was morph into a firefly and zip around the shadows as they screamed in his light. It was quiet the light show for the time being, but there was still those few tentacles that Raven fought which slipped out to attack the others.

Starfire didn't see it, but Robin noticed the tentacle that shot out to grab her while her back was turned to the new villain. It was aiming for her neck—but it caught Robin's just as he pushed her out of the way, lifting him up off the ground.

"ROBIN!" She gasped as she turned around, but she was occupied with another tentacle that shot out to fight her. She kept it at bay with her starbolts, but it kept her at bay by shooting in her way whenever she tried to move toward Robin.

Robin was slightly choking. The thin tentacle wrapped around his neck and around his mouth to keep him quiet, and as he reached for his belt another tentacle shot out to grab his hands, holding them together at the wrists. He tried to kick or do something, but it was no use, and he froze when he felt something slither past his lips into his mouth.

"_Gross!"_ He tried to shout, but it came out as. "_Mrrrppphh_!"

"Hold on Robin!" Cyborg yelled, trying to get past the tentacles toward Robin.

Robin continued to struggle as the tentacle slithered further, prying into his mouth despite his attempts to keep it out, and started to move down his throat. It was so cold and numbing, feeling the way your gums do after the dentist gives you a needle in the mouth. It made him shiver terribly as it slid further down his throat ever so slowly and filled his chest like a breath you couldn't exhale. It was painful and disgusting and he wanted to spit it out, but all he could do was wait as it forced more of itself down his throat. No one else saw it happening, but he could feel it.

Suddenly his hands were free and the tentacle broken around his throat as Beast Boy transformed into a tiger and pounced on him. The leap carried the two far down the hallway and they slid to a halt on the hard floor, Beast Boy transforming back to his usual self with a sigh.

"Hope I didn't hurt you." Beast Boy said, looking to Robin who suddenly sat upright and back himself up against a wall. He could barely breath and the thing was still inside his chest, moving his lungs at its own accord to make him take in air and release it slowly. Either it was trying to calm him, or it was trying to freak him out—either way, he wanted to get it out of him.

"Get it out!" He shouted, a hand on his sternum as the cold numbing feeling grew to be a sting in his chest. He felt so sick that he wanted to puke. It would have gotten the stuff out, but somehow it kept his stomach from lurching. "Get it out! Now! Please!"

Beast Boy scooting next to Robin and grabbing him by his shoulders. "Calm down, dude. What's wrong? What's—"

He was interrupted by a earsplitting scream that erupted from the beast. It suddenly broke up into a thousand tiny shadows and slid off into every corner of the hall…gone in a flash.

"Guess he had too much of the light." Cyborg joked.

And that was the last thing Robin heard before he blacked put…

-A-

Whoa…that was odd. I had trouble thinking of how to make Robin get into such a mess. I don't think Glanknark is a real celebration on Starfire's planet and I had no idea how Robin was going to lose his memories. Now I have a good idea, and now you guys get to find out what is going on and why, exactly, it's happening. This isn't the last you'll see of the shadow guy, so just hold onto your seat and wait for the next chapter.

_Bowing goodbye,_

_Alexnandru Van Gordon_


	2. Chapter two: The mind

Impromptu

Alexnandru Van Gordon

Hmmm…seeing that I got a good amount of reviews for my first chapter, I guess I'll continue with this. Sorry if I grossed some of you guys out last time, but I haven't seen anyone else try that on Robin so I thought I'd go ahead and use it. It gets interesting. Just be patient…

DISCLAIMER: In no place, in no time.

CHAPTER TWO: The mind

The prison was always boring, and the Jump City Asylum was worse. You were all in your own cell and there was a bullet proof glass wall instead of bars separating you from the visitors and the cops. There was no way to leave the prison unless you A) fulfilled the amount of time you were sent there for; or B) a hero from the Justice League or either of the Teen Titans (Steel City East or the Jump City) came in and released you. Seeing that you were literally locked up for life, and since the heroes were the ones that put you there in the first place, well…you were getting out any time soon—or any time at all for that matter.

Seeing that it was summer, the inmates were allowed outside (all save for Cinderblock, Overload and Plasmus who couldn't be controlled) and that meant they had time to plan futile escapes. But some of the guys here weren't even from here, being sent to Jump City since Arkham Asylum was full. There were guys who had to be blinded folded unless you wanted to be hypnotized, and some men could turn you to ice with the touch of their finger.

It was an army waiting for the opportune time to escape.

"Who's that?" Mumbo asked. Without his magic wand he looked pretty normal, but even he had some tricks up his sleeves without his powers. He was staring at a cloaked figure on the far side of the lawn, levitating a couple of inches off the solid ground. "A psychic?"

"Maybe." Some other guy said. He was a tall brute with gloves over his hands. Without them, anything he touched would burst out in flames. He couldn't take them off without a key to the gauntlets, but his strength was enough to scare anyone away.

Hearing them, the dark figure levitated their way and sat crossed legged above the ground. "I am a shadow." He said, two red eyes glowing from the darkness of his hood. "And if you wish to see what I can do, then watch."

Mumbo grinned. "Can you get us out of here?"

"In no time soon."

Mumbo and the brute, Pyro, exchanged curious looks before staring at the man. "You're name?" Pyro asked, interested now in another form of magic.

"Just, Sham."

"Sham, huh? Car to show us what you can do?"

There was a pause and the two inmates wondered if he had heard them at all. Pyro was about to ask again before his red eyes glowed brighter for half a second and a small black worm slithered along the ground until it joined Sham's shadow and disappeared. Sham's eyes glowed again and he smiled wickedly.

"I sent one of my creations out to the city to find someone…someone who I could use to free me. Though my creation was weak, being drained of energy myself, it has done its job and slowly that person will submit to it."

Mumbo raised an eyebrow. "And what is this person going to do?"

There was another small laugh from Sham before the air around him grew colder. "This person has access to the prison. He will get us out…"

-R-

Waking up after being attacked was harder than waking up at three am. His chest felt like he was holding his breath, but there was nothing physically wrong. Besides the point that he woke up in the infirmary room at the T-tower, nothing else appeared to be out-of-place.

"Hey, man. How you feel'n?"

He rubbed his head, a little on the woozy side after ingested some unknown substance…Or had he? It didn't feel like it was inside of him anymore. Maybe this was just another fever—the goop being a manifestation of a hallucination. Nothing more…nothing less…

"Hello?" Beast Boy waved a hand in front of his face and so he finally sat up. "Dude—you sleep like the dead."

"Gee. Thanks…"

"Your welcome."

He blinked a couple of times behind his mask before realizing no one else was there. It was only Beast Boy and himself.

"Hey. Where's—"

"Got another call out." Beast Boy sighed, sitting in a chair beside the bed. He looked bored. "I was elected to stay behind and watch you. Besides, Control Freak isn't that important anyway…"

Well, at least they were still doing there job.

"Hey, Rob…" Robin turned toward him and waited patiently. "What were you talking about back in the hospital?"

"Huh?"

"You know—you kept asking us to get something out of you?"

Then maybe it wasn't a dream. The whole ordeal really happened…Ew…

"Did you find anything inside me when you guys returned to the tower?" He asked instead of answering. As long as he was free of that stuff, than he needn't worry about explaining it to the others. Trying to recall the event would have just made him nauseous.

"Ummm…nothing, actually." Beast Boy replied and jabbed a thumb at the monitoring screen on the far wall. "You were free when we took you in, but you're getting something of a fever."

Okay…so maybe the entire thing was just a mishap. He probably just imagined having that _thing_ slid down his throat into his chest…He really didn't want to remember it. That was the grossest thing that had ever happened to him before.

"When did the others leave?"

Beast Boy yawned. "About a minute ago. You just missed them."

Too bad. He wondered how Starfire had been after the battle and he hoped to the skies above that she wouldn't worry about him when she came back and realized he was awake. Her hugs could kill.

Damn—it was her birthday tomorrow! He really didn't want her in a mellow mood then. He took so much time to make that necklace for her…

"Do you think they'll be back soon?"

Beast Boy shook his head. "I don't know. Control Freak is a…well, a freak. They'll probably be chasing him until dinner."

"It shouldn't take them that many hours."

Beast Boy nodded his head toward the window.

It was that dark already? Robin scratched his head. Really—he had been asleep all morning and afternoon? Perhaps it was because he stayed up all last night to finish making Starfire's necklace. His team probably thought he was dead.

Well…as long as he didn't sleep through her birthday.

"I'm gonna win the cake contest tomorrow." Beast Boy snickered wickedly, which cause Robin to roll his eyes. "Hey—when's you birthday?"

He yawned, suddenly sleepy again. "Wake me up when they get back." He said, trying to avoid the question.

"Come on—it's not like I'm going to tell the devil."

Well…

"The first day of Spring."

---

Settled within a new figure, _it_ began to listen—whirling its way up in search of the memory bank of the mind. Something triggered it and an answer came out.

_The first day of Spring._

There—an memory to snatch.

_It was dark and it was slightly cold, chilly enough that a person might see their breath as a puffy white cloud before their face. It was a dark hallway in what appeared to be a mansion, each door locked tight._

But it held all the keys.

_Lingering close to a door, a tendril of a black, smoke-like substance slithered along the floor and crawled up the door toward the keyhole. Sliding in, it took the rest of itself along for the ride and came into a dark room. There was a single spotlight illuminating the center of the room where a small perch was. A large bat hung upside-down from it and opened its wings slowly, emitting a small screech toward the intruder as **it** approached. There was no use alarming the boy who owned this mind…_

_The bats shadow fell on a tiny small robin jumping along on the ground beneath it—almost as though protecting it. There was also laughter in the room—the sound of a circus…it was followed by a sickening **thud** and the sudden cries of an orphaned boy. An acrobat, no less…_

_The robin chirped despite the sourceless noises and continued to hop about, always within the safety of the bat's shadow. Whatever had happened in the boy's past, he refused to have it weigh him down. There was still a terrible feeling of lose lingering in his aching heart, but he found security and affection with someone else—someone represented by the bat. Whoever it was **it** had yet to learn, but it was someone dark and stern…as clever and strong as the boy seemed to be. But, despite the darkness, the bat was not a source of evil. It was something punishing itself for its own loss long ago…_

_**It** came closer, still in the form of smoke, and reached out to grab the bird—shrinking back when the bat called out again and dropped from its perch with a flap of its mighty wings. The wind blew the smoke back as the robin hopped back in fear, but **it** was not willing to give up easily._

_**It** reached out again…_

-A-

Well, here's a dip into Boy Wonder's mind. You'll get more if you promise to stop giving me a headache. I actually wrote this out once before, but the whole thing ended up getting deleted. Please forgive the tardiness and wait for the next chapter. I'm writing The Boogie Man for my little sister right now and I'll be spending most of my time on that and Again (and Blast). There's a line up, as you can see—but thanks to those who reminded me. You are so loyal to be so patient!

_Until Again,_

_Alexnandru Van Gordon_


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